The Twin Realization of Hermione Granger
by ruriginryu
Summary: Ron leaves Hermione in a very cruel way. And Fred and George are the ones to find her, and help her. Hermione moves on, putting herself back together with their help and realizes shes in love with them. Rated M  17 for language and adult content.
1. Fred and George Discover Disaster

Hermione curled up in a ball sobbing to herself and feeling miserable. She held herself tighter against the cold hardwood floor, her wand lying a few feet away as she tried to hold herself together after the devastation of that morning.

Ronald Bilius Weasley had broken her heart. Broken her heart so thoroughly that she felt she would never be pieced back together again. '_Like Humpty-Dumpty'_ Hermione snorted at the absurd thought that had broken through this absolutely horrible situation. She felt as though he world had come crashing in on her, worse than it had when Ron had left her and Harry by themselves to search for the remaining Horcruxes.

Hermione sobbed harder as images of Ron, Harry, and herself flashed through her mind reminding her forcibly of all the reasons she had thought he loved her as much as she believed she had loved him.

Now, Ron had left only her. Had left her to pursue his 'dream' of fame, glory, money, Quidditch, while holding hands with former Hufflepuff Hanna Abbot. Ron hadn't even said sorry, hadn't in fact even given Hermione any choice in the matter at all. Ron had simply packed his bags and left in the middle of the night, leaving behind him only memories and a long goodbye note lying on the coffee table.

Said coffee table was currently resting on its side halfway across the room from its normal position all of its contents scattered over the floor, its coasters and glass top smashed to bits, with bloody shards mixed in with the lot. Yet, Hermione still lay there sobbing into her profusely bleeding hands and curled up on her living room floor.

Hermione lay like this for hours, not moving or changing anything except renewed sobs and tears every time anything about Ron entered her mind.

After a few more hours, Hermione passed out asleep from the exhausting emotional ordeal she had been subjected to that morning. Shortly after her deep breathing filled the room with its rhythmic sound, her property charm went off alerting her to the presence of wizarding guests, yet Hermione continued to sleep peacefully on the floor.

Soon voices could be heard outside the door of her flat arguing with each other in an amiable fashion. Shortly after the voices ceased, and a sharp but insistent _tap tap tap_ was heard on her door, but Hermione still remained fast asleep and unmoving.

For ten more minutes knocks continued in a steadily more annoyed sound in various intervals until the two people outside the door of Hermione's flat held a short whispered conversation, then they opened the door.

Fred and George Weasley were standing in the doorway of the flat Hermione had shared with Ron, both of them pointing their drawn wands into the dark flat and staring around them in shock. Picture frames had been torn off walls, thrown off their resting places on small tables and the mantle and were now lying scattered and broken upon the floor in every direction. Fred and George stepped nervously into the room, and immediately saw Hermione lying upon the floor among all the debris with blood covering her, and her wand lying a few feet away.

Fred and George rushed over to her panic written upon their worried faces, attempting to see what was wrong with Hermione. As Fred brushed Hermione's hair back from her face and checked if there was a pulse, George examined her to find where the blood had come from. He tapped Fred's arm and pointed at her hands which were covered in scratches up to the wrists, some deep cuts, others shallow and already scabbed over and were clenched around a crumpled piece of parchment. Fred gently removed the bloodied parchment from her wounded hands while George muttered "_Episky_" waving his wand over her hands, cleaning out and healing all the cuts there. A few rather large chunks of glass fell from some of the larger cuts, making Fred and George look at each other worriedly then back to Hermione.

Fred and George shook Hermione gently. Hermione stirred, and threw her arm over herself into a more comfortable position. The twins grinned at each other then shook her gently again. This time Hermione's eyes fluttered open, staring groggily up at Fred and George for a few moments before she burst into tears and covered her face with her newly healed hands.

"Hermione, what happened? What's the matter love?" Fred anxiously asked, his hands hovering over her unsure what to do. '_If Ron did this to Hermione I swear on Merlin's saggy left nut that I will make him regret every second of sadness that he has ever caused her._' He thought savagely looking at her body shaking with sobs and feeling the anger coursing through him.

"Maybe it was Crookshanks leaving that made her this upset." George whispered loudly obviously trying to lighten the mood a bit.

However, at this poor attempt at a joke, Hermione started sobbing harder, remembering the time back in third year when Ron had accused Crookshanks of eating the rat they believed to be Scabbers at the time and later found to be a traitor nick-named Wormtail.

Fred smacked George in the back of the head then gave him a '_you're-not-really-helping-things-here'_ glare. Finally George looked down abashed and whispered "Sorry mate. I just thought it would cheer her up a bit, thinking of her cat instead."

Fred and George looked back down at Hermione still sobbing on the floor in front of them and both shivered at the anger for whatever had caused her to cry coursing up their bodies. _What had caused her to fall apart like this?_

"What happened Hermione love?" George asked kindly, pulling her hands away from her face so she could see them.

"R-R-Ron s-said . . . . i-in the n-n-note." Hermione said gesturing at the piece of Parchment Fred had taken out of her hands earlier. She choked back fresh sobs and tried to sit up, still crying morosely.

Fred picked up the parchment and flattened it against his knee, then took up one of Hermione's soft hands in his, scooting closer to George who took Hermione's other hand in one of his own as well. Streaks of Hermione's blood had dried into the parchment along with the ink and smeared some of the letters, but it was still legible and still recognizable as to whom had written it.

Fred and George instantly recognized Ron's untidy scrawl filling the parchment. It read:

_**DEAR HERMIONE,**_

_**BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS I WILL HAVE LEFT WITH MY NEW FIANCEE HANNA ABBOT TO GO AND LIVE IN GODRICS HOLLOW WHERE I HEAR THEY ARE HOSTING TRY-OUTS FOR A NEW CHUDLEY CANNONS KEEPER POSITION.**_

_**I HOPE IT DOESN'T COME AS TOO MUCH OF A SHOCK TO YOU, THAT I NEVER REALLY WAS THAT INTERESTED IN YOU, AS MUCH AS YOU AND EVERYBODY ELSE THOUGHT I WAS. I ONLY STAYED FRIENDS WITH YOU TO GET THROUGH SCHOOL SO MUM DIDN'T KILL ME FOR GETTING LESS OWL's THAN FRED AND GEORGE. NOT TO MENTION THAT IF I WERE TO EVER GET LAID, I KNEW THAT A PRUDE LIKE YOU WOULDN'T GIVE IT UP AS EASY AS MY HANNAH-BANANA DID.**_

_**I KNOW YOU'RE PRETTY SMART SO I KNOW THAT YOU'LL UNDERSTAND THAT IT WAS ONLY SELF PRESERVATION TO LOOK OUT FOR YOURS TRULY, AND TO AVOID YOUR NASTY TEMPER BY ESCAPING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT INSTEAD OF LEAVING IN THE MORNING AND SPEAKING TO YOU FACE TO FACE. HANNAH AND I FIGURED YOU WOULD HEX ME INTO OBLIVION, SO SHE MADE ME PROMISE TO LEAVE IN THE NIGHT AND LEAVE YOU THIS NOTE. SHE WORRIES ABOUT ME SO MUCH, IT'S SO SWEET!**_

_**OH, AND IF YOU EVER LAND A JOB AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC LIKE I EXPECT YOU WILL, PUT IN A GOOD WORD FOR ME WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF MAGICAL GAMES AND SPORTS. I FIGURE YOU WOULDN'T MIND DOING THAT FOR AN OLD FRIEND OF YOURS AFTER ALL. IT'S ONLY JUST IN CASE THIS KEEPER POSITION DOESN'T WORK OUT LIKE I HOPE.**_

_**SINCERELY, **_

_**RON WEASLEY**_

_**P.S. The lease is up in two days. . including today. Just a reminder for you.**_

Fred and George re-read the letter incredulously, their anger welling up infinitely more than it was before reading the letter their stupid younger brother had left to break the heart of the beautiful young witch.

"What the FUCK is that BLOODY GIT thinking!" George shouted angrily trying to siphon off some of his emotions. Fred nodded in agreement to angry to speak.

George grabbed Hermione by the shoulders and pulled her onto the couch off the glass strewn floor tucking her head into his shoulder, where it became damp within moments. Fred sat down behind Hermione, sandwiching her between him and his brother, lending their strength and love to her as she took solace from the kind-hearted and playful men she had known for eight years now. They allowed her to let all her grief out with them, comforting their friend, the girl they had been in love with for years.

After almost an hour spent like this Hermione pulled away from the twins sniffling heartily and wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve, giving them both watery smiles before looking down at her lap ashamed of what they had just seen.

"I don't really have time to be crying do I?" Hermione chuckled humorlessly. "I should be looking for another place to stay, and looking for work. Not sitting in the living room crying my eyes out over the fact that he left me. I'm sorry you two found me like this. You two can go back to the shop now; I know you two are very busy re-opening Weasley's Wizard Wheezes" she shakily finished, the beginnings of her tears starting to slowly leak out of her eyes once more.

"You should know us better than that Hermione." Fred said gravely, catching a tear from beneath her right eye and wiping it away.

"You should know that we won't leave you in such pain and misery by yourself. Not like this." George added just as serious, tenderly wiping an escaped tear from her left eye away.

"Thanks guys." Hermione smiled sadly, looking around them at the room.

"Though, if you don't mind us asking Hermione," Fred began looking around him as well.

"What exactly happened here?" George finished curiously also looking around at the wreckage.

"Well, at first I was really angry at the bugger for having the nerve to insult me and ask me for favors in the same letter he announces that he was cheating on me in and that he's leaving me for. After he'd really just told me he'd been using me all this time . . . so I kind of let my anger out on all the pictures of us from through the years, and I tried my best to destroy the poor coffee table that he'd left the bloody note on. Unfortunately when my hands got so bloody from the glass I realized I wasn't so much mad as I was devastated from what he had said and done. He'd used me, used my hopes, and emotions, everything . . . then just left me here, like I'm worthless. Like this." She waved her hand vaguely around at the mess encircling them all and Fred and George realized how bad it was. She had been trying to deal with the situation Ron had left her in, and ended up in this mess.

"Hmm. Well I guess there's only one thing for us to do Gred." Fred said rising from his seat and dusting down his pants smattered with glittering glass.

"Right you are Forge, right you are." George replied smirking and imitating Fred's actions across him.

"What is there for you two to do?" Hermione inquired nervously, not liking the sound of their voices. "I have to find a place to stay, and pack my belongings, and find a job before the lease is up tomorrow! I can't do anything else until that's settled!"

"Whoever said anything about anything else my dear?" Fred asked mischievously.

"Well . . . . . nobody, honestly. I just thought that it's what you were thinking because it would be just like the two of you to go do some sort of mischief to cope with this problem!"

"You're not wrong about that" agreed George with a wink.

"But we were going to offer you a job and the guest room in the flat above the shop!" Fred winked roguishly at Hermione and giving his best Lockheart-ish smile.


	2. First Stirrings OR Party All Night

"Really?" Hermione asked with a small smile momentarily lighting up her eyes until not a moment later her face fell back to its previous frown. "But aren't you going to be moving in there soon to keep up with business?"

"Well," said Fred.

"We don't really have a choice in the matter, because" George continued the flow.

"As you said, dear Hermione,"

"We are going to have to keep up with all the business. But,"

"With its re-opening we could use all the help we can get."

"And you're supposed to be the brightest witch around our general age." George smiled at her, hoping that their use of their twin logic and continuation would not only get through to her, but also cheer her up, even slightly.

"Unless," Fred added with a smirk, "You feel that our devilishly handsome visages would provide a distraction to you?"

Hermione rolled her eyes at this. _Honestly._ " . . Alright, but if Ron comes here to visit you two or to buy things from the shop, I don't want to be anywhere near him. In fact, I would prefer that he goes somewhere else, because I don't have anywhere else to go to until I locate mum and dad. Even then I'm not going to Apparate all the way to Australia just because he's stopping by for a cup of tea a chat or a stupid joke wand." She warned vehemently.

A dark look crossed the normally friendly features of the twins momentarily. Hermione couldn't understand what had caused it, unless they were upset that she had set rules against their younger brother. _Maybe moving in with Ron's older twin brothers isn't such a good thing after all._ After a look at each other however, Fred and George turned to Hermione and said, "Deal."

"Don't worry Hermione," Fred continued a grim set to his jaw. "We'll make sure he doesn't come by here and bother you in any way."

Hermione looked for a second like she were going to ask questions, but shook her head and looked down obviously not wanting to bring Ron back up.

"Alright! So now that that is settled," George said brightly, clapping his hands, "We need to get a few other things straightened out."

"Like what?" Hermione asked George looking up at him as he rose up off the couch.

"Well, for one, packing all your things." Fred answered her also rising off the couch.

"For two; making space for you in the guest room at our flat. We brought a whole bunch of stock in and stored it in there until we could put it into the stock room with their counterparts." George interjected, holding one of his hands out to her.

"For three; taking you out tonight for a bit of a cheer-up dinner with two devilishly handsome men." Fred laughed also offering Hermione a hand.

Hermione looked up at the two wonderful men she had known for nine years now, smiling at their efforts to cheer her up and show her a little kindness. She dusted her hands off and grabbed both of their proffered hands firmly, allowing them to haul her up off the couch and wrap their arms around her waist cheerily.

Fifteen minutes later Hermione had repaired and sent all the unwanted pictures of just Hermione and Ron to Mrs. Weasley who would love them, and was finishing stuffing the last bookcase full of books into the tiny neck of her old beaded bag (the magic was too good not to use she thought) while Fred and George looked on in amazement that the tiny bag fit such large objects as Hermione's multiple bookcases (a now permanent fixture as it had taken Hermione _ages_ to sort all the books piled up in it when the war was over.)

She giggled a bit hysterically at the looks on their faces when they heard the thunderous and disproportionate noises coming from the tiny beaded bag as the bookcase finally hit the bottom.

"That's extraordinary Hermione!" Fred enthused still ogling the small bag.

"I agree! Do you mind teaching us that one?" George added eyes gleaming with the possibilities.

"Sure guys. What for though?" Hermione asked, seeing the gleam in George's eyes.

F: "Well you've inspired us actually."

G: "To expand our entire shop of wizarding jokes products."

F: "Absolutely; every product line excepting the Muggle jokes in fact."

G: "It's really quite brilliant; even a whole new range of packaging for our products."

"Spit it out already!" Hermione snapped exasperated that they were answering her with so vaguely and tantalizingly. Fred and George looked at Hermione finally, both wearing scandalized expressions that made Hermione smile.

F: "Well we couldn't!"

G: "Not now."

F: "Tomorrow morning."

G: "After breakfast."

F: "Because tonight,"

G: "You are our date."

Hermione laughed for real this time, throwing back her head and clutching her sides in absolute mirth. She'd always found it funny when they spoke like that, but they'd never done it un-intentionally and directed it at her specifically. It helped cheer her up immensely that they had been thinking so along the same lines that they'd been acting that way unconsciously.

The twins grinned at each other, pleased that Hermione was laughing heartily and a gleam appeared in both of their eyes. If Hermione had stopped laughing long enough to see it, she may have rescinded her agreement to accompany them to dinner, even though it was an effort to cheer her up.

Several hours later, in the darkness of early morning, the three of them stumbled to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes down Diagon Alley, drunk and in high spirits after their time spent out together.

They had begun their evening at a magical restaurant famous for their exquisite cuisine, and excellent service. They had all shared a rather large dragon-meat steak (about an eighth of the tender back-strap) and had been delighted to find that Hermione liked her steak medium rare just as they did. Along with the steak they had a delectable salad with some magical herbs and freshly baked bread and a slice each of a six-layer heavy, thick, and rich chocolate cake that melted on their tongues.

Early on in their dinner as the salad and bread was out they had started the evening off with a few butterbeers apiece. However, when the steak came out they shared two bottles of red wine. When the dessert made an appearance they all shared three bottles of sweet white wine, however most of the wine went to Hermione as Fred and George were trying to do the cheering, not be cheered themselves.

When they were through with dinner, the three of them were all tipsy, but Fred and George insisted that they visit Lee Jordan's bar and they had all Side-Along Apparated over there. When they arrived, Fred and George's regular table was cleared immediately by anybody who sat there. Hermione giggled at the three plaques hanging in a mobile over the table. One said Fred, one George, and the largest said 'Gryffindor Apprentices to the Marauders'. Hermione of course knew who the original Marauders were, because one was Harry's dad, the others were his three friends at school, Sirius, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. The evening had apparently just begun.

Lee Jordan, his wife Angelina, and former Gryffindor Katie Bell all joined the trio at their table in several rounds of drinks and reminiscing over their years at school and the second war with Voldemort. They all laughed over the swamp that Fred and George had left in the third floor corridor and at the memento that Professor Flitwick had made of it, then at all the fireworks that the twins had unleashed, particularly the curse word sparklers and the odd combination that the Catherine Wheels and the rockets had made when the pink and silver magical firework piglets had erupted from their crashing together.

As the Second War conversation moved on however, Fred and George noticed that Hermione had started drawing in on herself, contributing less to the conversation and providing little details. They knew that she had spent the entire time between Bill and Fleur's wedding and the end of the war with Ron and Harry and knew that she was again remembering that morning. They quickly suggested a game of 'Truth or lies' where each person tells two stories about their life and the others have to figure out which is the truth and which is the lie. If somebody guesses right, the person who told the story has to drink two shots of tequila, one for each story told. If nobody guesses right, then everybody else has to take two shots of tequila.

When the game was no longer fun, they had switched to the Muggle drinking past-time of beer pong. After it became apparent that nobody was able to perform the game quickly or effectively, the twins persuaded Lee Jordan to bring out some special bottles of fire-whiskey. Just what was special about them only the three boys knew, however the three girls didn't really care at the time knowing they would have fun regardless.

They proceeded to play a round of poker with a pack of Exploding Snap cards in which anybody who lost a hand had to drink a shot of the special fire-whiskey. After the final two people conceded defeat to one another (Fred and George knew when the other person was bluffing because they were so identical) the three boys announced that the special bottles of fire-whiskey they had all emptied were laced with veritaserum for the next game they had planned, a round of the favorite Hogwarts student past-time of 'I Never'.

All the girls, including Hermione, jokingly complained that it wasn't fair to give them veritaserum without telling them about it, pouted and eventually agreed to play anyways. The game ended around three because Angelina passed out and started snoring loudly at the table after her last shot and Lee had insisted on taking her up to bed to get ready for the next day. After Fred and George had helped Lee carry Angelina up to bed, they waved goodbye to Katie Bell, and Apparated back to the Leaky Cauldron to go through the entrance to Diagon Alley with Hermione in tow. They were all surprised at the things they had learned about each other through the last game.

For instance, Hermione was surprised but pleased to find out Fred and George both were virgins though far from inexperienced or innocent. She was unsure as to exactly why it pleased her so much that the twins were also virgins, but she didn't really care anyways, especially after finding out that the sole true reasons that Fred and George had opened up the Joke Shop in the first place is to help their parents out, though they had always insisted that it was because they were the only part of the family with any sense of humor.

Fred and George were surprised to find out that Hermione was still a virgin, although she had been dating Ron for the past two years, and they had expected him to deflower her. . immediately actually. They were also quite shocked to find that Hermione had some of the most colorful sexual fantasies they'd ever imagined and they had thought about developing some of them into their patented daydreams for adults only (or over the age teens at least). They had also expected Hermione to be passed out after the first few rounds of drinks at Lee's bar, mostly because most women they'd taken out on a night like this hadn't lasted through the wine though they generally got less than Hermione and the twins had shared.

Yet, Hermione had lasted through four butterbeers, five bottles of wine, six to eight different un-named drinks Lee had made specially for Hermione after watching the newest Muggle movie Casino Royal with main character James Bond, six drinks the American Muggle men dubbed bitch-beers, eight shots of tequila, ten shots of veritaserum laced fire-whiskey, and sixteen shots of normal fire-whiskey, and was walking and talking, however much she slurred or stumbled. Fred and George were awestruck. No woman they knew could do that but their mom and even she had problems doing that.

So here they were, stumbling home down Diagon Alley, laughing heartily as Fred clumsily re-enacted some of the funnier points of the night, or when George corrected Hermione's slurred words, only to slur his own.

As they quieted down, waiting patiently while Fred fumbled with his keys to unlock the shop, Hermione's glum face re-appeared as she thought over the last time she, Harry, and Ron had all gone out for drinks. It had been little more than two weeks ago. . . and Ron had asked her to sleep with him that night.

"I'm not sure if we have more than two towelsh at the moment Hermione, but you're welcome to zzhem if you want to washh." Slurred Fred as he finally opened the door to the shop. Hermione gave no reply to this announcement.

Fred and George walked into their darkened shop and pulled out their wands.

"_Lumos!"_ they cried together igniting the tips of their wands and casting a strong light over the surrounding shop. George, noticing Hermione's shadow was not being cast alongside theirs, or at all, turned back to the still-open doorway. There Hermione was, tears falling thick and fast down her beautiful and pale face.

George strode up to her and embraced her warmly, murmuring words of comfort to this sweet girl in distress. '_No, this sweet __woman__ in distress_' George chided himself inwardly still attempting to sooth away her tears. He looked over his shoulder at Fred who was right behind him in the doorway, looking hesitant and a little confused… not like Fred normally was in any way. George rolled his eyes from Fred to Hermione indicating that Fred should join them and comfort her as well.

Fred nodded and moved behind the two of them, once again embracing the younger witch that they had come to love over the years from behind. "Shh love. It's alright now. We're here for you. You'll be alright now, okay? We promise you'll be fine with us. Shh. Shh-shh-shhh." Fred murmured into Hermione's ear as she shook between the two brothers crying silently. Fred started to rub up and down the curves of her sides soothingly, as George rubbed her arms and shoulders also trying to sooth her.

Soon enough Hermione's tears ceased, and she stood there hiccoughing embraced by the two men still soothing her. She looked into each man's eyes, a beautiful blue like sky and sea combined, and felt a strange stirring within her. It confused her for a moment, but she shook it off. She'd read up on it later. There was a more important thing on her mind right now.

"Um. . . do you mind . . too much. . if I . . . .don't want to . . .to sleep …alone tonight?" Hermione haltingly got all the words out of her mouth a little at a time. Fred and George looked at the witch in their arms shocked for the breadth of a moment before looking into each others' face for verification of the other twins' decision.

"Of course not 'Mione!" they answered in unison causing her to beam up at them happily. Both Fred and George caught their breath in their throat when Hermione beamed at them so happily. Captive tears were still glistening wetly in her dark lashes framing chocolate eyes which darkened as they watched with some unknown (to them) passion. Instantly each of the twins felt a stirring in their own loins answering unconsciously to the passion they had sensed in Hermione, but hadn't recognized for what it was.

Knowing that their sudden erections would soon be evident to Hermione as well, they reluctantly released her and turned abruptly towards the storage room.

"Where are you going?" cried Hermione as she hurried after them, waving her wand over one shoulder to close and lock the door.

"Upstairs." They answered together in curt voices.

"Oh." Hermione thought she had done something to anger them and sped up to keep up with them. She closed all the doors behind her with her wand until they reached the flat where she turned to do it manually. When she turned back around, the twins had disappeared into another room. Hearing the running of water she assumed they were both taking a shower. . . together?

Hermione shook her head in resignation. Who knew with those two? Maybe they were sharing a towel too so she could take a shower in the morning. Hermione smiled at the thought of such gallantry from the twins as she sat down on one of their beds. She pulled her beaded bag out of her pocket and tossed it unceremoniously on a chair across the room and smiled at the thudding and clunking coming from it.

She lay down on the bed thinking about the day so far. It had been painful, and strange, and fun all in one. She fell asleep smiling about the most recent events with the twins. Things sure were going to be interesting living with those two.

Barely a half hour after she had lain back and fell asleep, the twins emerged from the bathroom shivering from the ice-cold showers. They stopped to look at her, lying curled up and peaceful on Fred's bed, and grinned. George pulled his wand out of the bundle of clothes he was holding and pointed it at Fred's bed.

"_Engorgio_." He muttered quietly. When the bed was large enough to accommodate all three of them and then some he stopped the spell.

The twins then proceeded to dry off and pull on a pair of clean loose boxers and crawl into bed on either side of Hermione (who was now in the center of the bed). They wrapped their arms about her and held her close between them. She snuggled deeper into George's shoulder when she felt their warmth and smiled in her sleep. Ron was such a fool for leaving her.


	3. Gred and Forge Nark on Ron

Disclaimer: The Author of Harry Potter is J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling is the Rightful owner and creator of the original story that this fanfic has been based upon. Without J.K. Rowling's Amazing talent, this story would not have been possible.

A/N: So sorry to all those who were waiting for me to update! I just started the new semester and I am in a lot of very difficult classes. The bad news is that my updates will be far less frequent, and if I rush them they will also be a little less edited, which means that I'll have a lot more mistakes with grammar, punctuation and sometimes spelling. The Good news is that I will have more time to play with the chapters, and develop the story line a bit more than I probably would have.

Also, special thanks to those of you who have submitted signed or anonymous reviews. They really inspire me to keep on truckin' lol. =D

* * *

The next morning, or rather several hours later that same morning, Fred and George both woke up within seconds of each other on either side of Hermione. They each looked at Hermione, who had firmly entangled herself within Fred's limbs, and smiled tenderly at her. Chuckling, George helped Fred extricate himself from Hermione's warm embrace without waking her up.

Once that was completed George set about finding clothes for himself and Fred while Fred rummaged around in yesterday's clothes looking for something. After about a minute Fred straightened up grinning triumphantly at the crumpled parchment in his hand. George looked pointedly at the parchment in his hands, then at his brother's face clearly asking, "What in the world do you have there brother? And what do you plan on using it for?" Fred just shook his head emphatically motioning towards Hermione's sleeping form then pointing at the floor towards the shop downstairs as if to say "I'll tell you when we get out of the apartment. Don't want to wake her up." George nodded pulling his shirt on and waited on Fred to finish dressing.

When Fred finished pulling on his other shoe, George made as though to leave the room, but Fred signaled sharply to him to stop. Fred then walked over to the writing desk they used to do the shops' figures and began rummaging around all the drawers and shuffling through all the papers searching for a blank parchment. George, finally cottoning on, leapt over to his brother at the desk to help speed up the process, and between the two of them found both parchment and quill. Fred dipped the quill into the already open inkwell on the desk and scratched out a message to Hermione on it.

_Morning Love!_

Fred wrote, pausing to suck on the end of the quill and think for a moment.

_We know you would rather wake up to two devilishly handsome men on either side of you as we were last night, however this morning we had to have a chat with Bill about our shop business for a bit. He's been hiding out at the Burrow with us since he found out that Fleur was pregnant (haha, we love taking the mickey out of him for it) so when you wake up by yourself there's a hangover potion if you need it on the desk and a towel on the rack in the bathroom. We'll be waiting on you to eat lunch with us at the Burrow. We'll make sure that Ginny and Harry are there too, so you can chat with them when you get there._

_Sincerely, _

_Your lovable Twins_

Fred folded the parchment in half width-wise put Hermione's name on the front in surprisingly artful and beautiful letters, then duplicated his work and handed one to George. Understanding what Fred was intending to do (_I mean __**honestly**__, we're twins_ he thought) George busied himself getting the hangover potion and the towel ready for Hermione as Fred had mentioned, then took the liberty of summoning a few of the shop's WonderWitch products for Hermione to choose from and use as well as making the bathroom more comfortable and pleasing for a woman. First he enlarged the tub to jacuzzi-like proportions, then softened both the lighting and the towels which now resembled thick and soft fur. George also added a bunch of candles if Hermione wanted to use them, as well as a phonograph that would play soothing music. '_Oh she'll **love** this._' George thought happily.

While George was busy doing this, Fred had duplicated the parchment, stiffening them to resemble a stiff cardstock, and placed them on the pillows either side of Hermione, where he and George had lain the night before. Fred then produced two beautiful frothy pink Gardenia's to place beside each note, their scent filling the room with a soft and sweet fragrance. Hermione smiled sweetly in her sleep and snuggled deeper into the warm bed and soft pillow cushioning her head. Fred smiled down at her. George grunted behind him quietly, reminding him he had something to do.

Fred turned around and hurried over to the writing desk once again. He found a smaller piece of parchment and scribbled a quick note, while George summoned the fastest company owl.

_Dear Bill,_

_Something's come up and George and I are on our way over to the burrow. Send word to Ginny and Harry. They'll want to be here for this. Wait for George and me in the kitchen with Mum. DO NOT invite Ron._

_Fred_

_P.S. Hermione's coming over for lunch when she wakes up. Let mum know to expect her._

Fred held the owl still while George tied the rolled up parchment to the owl's leg, then threw him out of the window to wing his way to the Burrow. Fred and George walked away from the always open window to the door of their apartment quietly. As they walked down the stairs to the shop Fred told George what he had planned. A few minutes later, standing out in the bright sunshine, the twins grinned with almost malicious pleasure. _'This day, they would relish. It was time for Ron to be punished.'_

When the twins arrived in the kitchen of their childhood home they saw Bill, Charlie, Ginny, Harry, and Mrs. Weasley sitting at the scrubbed wooden table in the normally cheerful room. Every face was wearing varying degrees of a grim expression. All were turned in the direction of the twins as though they had committed some unspeakable crime, or rather, an unspeakable crime which rivaled the unspeakable crimes the twins normally committed.

The first words out of anybody's mouth were from Mrs. Weasley, and her tone was icy and dripping venom. "One of you got Hermione pregnant didn't you? How could you do that to your younger brother? How could you compromise her! I thought I raised the two of you better than that! I thought-"

"You thought wrong Mum." George said quickly, his voice low and dangerous. Neither of the twins had ever spoken to their mother like that. Mrs. Weasley was shocked into silence instantly. Charlie however, spoke up then.

"What do you mean we were wrong?" Charlie asked curiously, icy tones still firmly in place.

Taking note of Charlie's plural Fred replied to his brother's query, his voice equally icy but also just as low and dangerous as George's had been. "We did no such thing. Neither of us seduced her. Neither of us bedded her in any way. We know for a fact that Hermione is not pregnant, and we seriously doubt that she could be without the aid of the Implant Charm and an already pregnant female who is compatible with Hermione's blood type and tissues. . Though at this stage in Hermione's life and relationship, somehow I doubt that she would opt for something like that." Fred stated nastily. "Not without a man to help her raise the child at least." George added almost as an afterthought.

"What do you mean not without a man to help her raise the child? She has Ron doesn't she?" Ginny interjected shrilly. The Twins thought the day before that Ginny was on her menstrual cycle, but both of them noticed she was being a lot more emotional than she normally was. They narrowed their eyes at her scowling.

"Actually Hermione doesn't." Fred said stubbornly.

"Yes she does! He told me yesterday he and she were still together when I asked how they were doing!"

"Then he was lying to you Gin. We have proof." George added just as stubbornly.

Throughout this entire conversation Harry and Bill had kept quiet, though Harry was actively following the conversation, moving his head back and forth as though watching a tennis rally, while Bill was sitting still and quiet through the exchange. Now however, Bill spoke up.

"What proof do you two have that Ron was lying to Ginny about his relationship with Hermione? What reason could you give us to believe you two? And how is it that you two know where Hermione is and already know she'll be coming to lunch if she is supposedly asleep?"Bill spoke quietly from his seat beside Harry.

"This thing I have right here. And because I do." Fred grinned as he pulled the crumpled piece of parchment out of his pocket.

"What's that then?" Ginny asked, unbelievably still acting quite snarky with Fred and George.

Fred smoothed out the crumpled piece of parchment and handed it to Bill who gingerly took the paper out of his hand and read through it quickly, then handed it off to Charlie and Mrs. Weasley. While the two of them leant over to read it quickly, and Ginny and Harry looked at it curiously trying to see what it said over their shoulders.

"Whose blood is that smeared on it?" Bill asked quietly. Ginny and Harry's heads snapped up immediately abandoning the perusal of the document in Mrs. Weasley's hands.

"What?" Harry said uneasily glancing at the parchment again.

"What do you mean whose blood is on this parchment?" Mrs. Weasley snapped looking a little nauseated.

"Mum, those rust colored smears across the paper is dried blood. I see enough of it at work with the dragons." Charlie chuckled.

"It's Hermione's blood. A right mess of it when we found her too. I'm surprised she didn't need a Blood Replenishing potion after what we saw."

Mrs. Weasley, Ginny and Harry gasped and everybody but Bill started asking questions of the twins all at once wondering if Hermione was okay, if she was attacked, if Ron was fine. Bill held up his hand to quiet everybody down saying only "Finish reading the note and then we can question the twins." Everybody looked at Bill surprised, he normally was pretty affable and everybody knew he cared about his family and Hermione just like they did. Yet he was sitting in his childhood home's kitchen with a commanding presence, voice, and demeanor silencing his own family as a leader would. It was a little frightening, but very awe inspiring.

"Right. . . I reckon we should finish reading this note then, so we can pass it on to Harry and Ginny and get some answers from Fred and George." Charlie said cheerfully, snapping the paper out of Mrs. Weasley's loose grip and leaning in towards her once more to finish the note.

Mrs. Weasley's eyes began to tear up when she re-read the first few lines of the note, and she began crying silently as she read further on, tears running unchecked down her soft cheeks. Ginny looked alarmed that her mother was crying so unrestrainedly and was fidgeting in her seat impatiently wanting to snatch the note out of her brother's hands so she and Harry could read it.

When Charlie and Mrs. Weasley finished reading the note, they passed it to Harry who leaned in close to Ginny to read. Mrs. Weasley was now sobbing into Charlie's shoulder and wailing indistinguishable words through her sobs. Her children were all watching her, and feeling grateful that they weren't the ones she was leaning on.

As Ginny finished reading the note, she let out a low hiss like an angry cat, and her eyes glinted furiously and she tossed her head angrily. Harry snorted and rolled his eyes. Fred and George grinned inwardly. '_Yes_,' they both thought, '_Ron certainly will pay, and Hermione doesn't have to do anything at all. He practically dug his own grave with that note._'

Harry looked at the amount of blood on the parchment, and glancing up at Fred and George to gauge their reactions asked the first questions since everybody had finished reading Ron's note.

"Why is there so much blood? Did Ron do this to Hermione?"

George moved over to some of the remaining chairs in the kitchen and cleared his throat to answer. This was sure to be a long interview with the family. "No. He may as well have though. When she woke up yesterday after he'd left, she destroyed the room. Smashed the coffee table to bits, and threw all their photos across the room. Her hands and arms got really cut up from the glass, and she didn't bother to heal herself. I actually had to do the healing for her when we found her."

"You found her?" Ginny asked them interrupting.

"Yes, Gin. We had gone over to the house to offer Hermione a job with us. Verity got pregnant and told us she wanted to prepare for that and said she was thinking of settling down. We even discussed offering Ron a job so they could work together as we were walking up to their door. She didn't answer for ten minutes and we got worried. I mean- there's still a few un-caught Death Eaters out there and you three are still a pretty big name and all." Fred sighed, rubbing his temples tiredly and looking upset. He joined the rest of his family at the table and sat down holding his head in his hands.

"So what else happened then?" This was Charlie, speaking over his mother's continued sobs, now slightly muffled.

"We went inside, our wands drawn looking for whatever it might've been. We saw the damage in the apartment and thought that they really had come for them, until we saw her lying in a heap near the couch with blood all over herself from that glass she smashed. Told us she was really pissed at first, 'cause he had asked all those favors in the note, told her he'd been cheating on her and using her then collapsed crying about him. She said she took it out on all the furniture." George grinned remembering her tone of voice when she'd said that.

Fred picked up the thread of the story from where his brother had left it, "Going back to when we saw her lying on the floor, we went over to her and woke her up, George healed her, but when she saw us she burst into tears. It took her a fairly long time to stop crying, but when she eventually did she told us her side, showed us this note, which I naturally pocketed, and we offered her the job, as well as a place to stay with us. She was a bit hesitant to accept the offer, thinking Ron would turn up and want a chat with us or something and nearly turned us down even though we assured her differently."

"Yeah, she really got hurt by him. She laid down some rules for us about him before she would agree. So to try and cheer her up, we took her out to dinner!" George laughed loudly and heartily, remembering the night out with his brother and Hermione, and all the surprises that night. "Man that girl can drink! She could drink us all under the table, and probably still keep going long afterwards!" George proceeded to tell them what all Hermione had drunk the night before and everybody's jaws dropped in awe.

"Now I know who to invite to my bachelor party when I want to get smashed!" joked Charlie laughing. Everybody joined in with his laugh for a few moments, even Mrs. Weasley who chuckled appreciatively and sniffed heartily, wiping her eyes forcefully.

"What did you do then? I mean at the dinner." Ginny asked looking at her brothers oddly.

"Well, we took her to that place that Mum and dad go to every couple years for their wedding anniversary, ate the dragon steak, and bought her plenty of alcohol. After we left there, we headed over to Lee's place and drank with Lee, Angie, and Katie. After Angie passed out, we went home." Fred sighed again seeming frustrated.

"And? You said Hermione was in your bed! Did you have sex with her?"

"NO!" the twins' dual voices rang about the room in the following silence. They hung their heads, cleared their throats and attempted to explain.

"When we were opening the door to get up to the flat, Hermione started crying. I think she was thinking about Ron again, and remembering the entire day. We'd been discussing our years at Hogwarts together, and the War. George here noticed what was going on right after we opened the door, and after she stopped crying that time, she asked us if she had to sleep by herself that night- or rather if we would mind letting her sleep with us last night so she wouldn't feel alone. We ah- we agreed."

The twins looked down at their laps, each remembering the steel hard erections from the night before that had been so hard to get rid of. They were no strangers to erections, and each of them had been frequent visitors with other girls wanting their attentions. Each of them had gotten to the point where they were sure the Promised Land was theirs- and one odd thing or another had happened time and again to keep both of them, unappeased, frequently frustrated and still virgins. Last night's events were only strange in the facts of the girl being a former girlfriend of Ron, and how they had gotten to those infuriating and nearly insatiable thoughts about her in the first place.

Mrs. Weasley broke the uncomfortable silence startling everybody when she spoke. "I'm glad the two of you were there to help her out boys. I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions earlier, and I hope you two don't take it personally. Might you need any food to stock up in the flat? If you do I'd be more than happy to go get it for you while you are here with Hermione, Harry and Ginny. Do you think she'll be here soon?" she asked kindly.

"Assuming she's already awake Mum, I don't think so. I left a lot of WonderWitch products in the bathroom to pamper herself with after the night she had. I expect she'll have a hangover from hell and will appreciate the products. I'd guess she'll stay there another couple of hours when she does wake." George smiled up at his mother cheekily. He knew she couldn't resist it when he did that.

"Alright then boys, do you need me to get anything for you though? I was about to go into town to buy some food anyways."

"No, we'll get anything we need from Diagon Alley when we get home. You must be pretty shell shocked about Ron and Hannah." Fred answered his mother trying to be helpful.

"You didn't know anything about this Hanna Abbot and Ron did you?" Mrs. Weasley narrowed her eyes at her sons.

"Absolutely not Mum! We were just as surprised about that as you were! In fact, I thought you would go to Godrics Hollow and beat him senseless when you saw about their engagement! You would've done us anyways." The last part was said under his breath.

"Now how do you feel about this? How's Hermione taking it so far?" Bill asked

"Now we're pretty pissed at Ron, and Hermione is sleeping off a night of drinking at our flat in my bed because of Ron. Otherwise I think that she's holding up pretty well."

"Alright Fred George, will you two accompany me outside into the garden _alone_ for a moment please?" Bill asked pointedly.

Fred and George nodded understanding to Bill, which everybody else took as assent, and followed Bill out the door into the gnome infested garden.

* * *

Hope everybody liked it! Please review!


	4. DormantBeauty Reveals Difficult thoughts

Disclaimer: As we all know, and must accept, the characters in this fanfic are not of my creation or my imagination, but of J.K. Rowlings. As such, I will make no profit from this story nor will I expect to see this in print elsewhere excepting this only thing I own of this story is the plotline, and how the original intentions of J.K. Rowling have been changed by my design for her illustrious characters in this fanfiction.

**Otherwise, please enjoy this story to the best of your abilities, and leave me a critical review of anything you find in need of change such as grammar, spelling, or unverified facts.**

**Thank you to those who have enjoyed my story thus far. I hope to not dissappoint you or myself, as I plan this story to be as long as I can possibly make it. Stick with me please.**

**As ever, READ&REVIEW is entirely up to you.**

**If you don't like this story or have issues with it's machinations, then don't read please.**

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Fred and George followed Bill out a fair ways into their family's gnome infested garden with all its memories, each contemplating the recent developments of their lives since the end of the Second War. Bill quickly perched upon one of the garden benches and motioned his younger twin brothers to do the same across from him, still looking at his brothers curiously.

"Alright boys, why did you send me the owl?"

George grinned at Bill mischievously, "We only wanted the simple pleasure of advice from a happily married man and soon to be father such as yourself Bill! In the interests of brotherly camaraderie that we all have for Hermione that is!"

Fred grinned at his older brother as he scowled at them, sweeping his hair back from his forehead and looking anywhere but at them for a few minutes. Then he turned sharply back to them and let out a long suffering sigh.

"Look, I know you two much better than you two would think. I am your older brother and I do pay attention you know. You two used to come to me for all of your advice back in the day, and I really miss that about our brotherly relationship boys. The problem right now is- _I know you wouldn't send me that owl if you didn't have something you needed to talk about away from Mum or Ginny._" Bill said tersely leaning forward and fixing the twins with his equivalent of an evil-eye and leering menacingly at them.

It seemed to work, for Fred and George both had a look of shock on their faces for a moment before their identical grins wiped from their faces and left uncomfortable silence for a few minutes in its wake. This time it was the twins who were avoiding looking at Bill.

Bill grinned inwardly at himself, knowing he'd caught them with whatever they had been hiding. He knew that they would most likely talk to him, but unless he took them un-aware they were not likely to spill the beans anytime soon. He waited patiently for them to gather their thoughts, while he thought dismally of the situation with Fleur at home.

He was happy that she was finally pregnant, but he had plentiful reason to believe that it wasn't his child. Fleur had gone home to visit her parents and sister in Paris just prior to her telling him of her pregnancy. And they hadn't been very _physical_ with each other prior to that. Not for the amount of time she was claiming to have gotten pregnant in.

Bill shifted uncomfortably in his seat, knowing that if he told anybody that they'd all assume he was just being paranoid, but Bill knew that Fleur really didn't want him. Every time she looked at him, in his various states of dressed or undressed, all she saw was his scars and she winced. Nobody else noticed this. Nobody but his fellow Remus, and not even Remus commented on it. Bill suspected that Remus was waiting for him to approach the older werewolf before he said anything, but Bill was wary of admitting his fears yet.

He snapped out of his self-assessment and paid attention to Fred as his younger twin reflexively cleared his throat.

"Well, actually the reason why we wanted to talk to you is because-" Fred looked away, a sheepish blush spreading across his neck and cheeks.

"We had a few _reactions_ to Hermione last night that were unexpected. We never really-" George looked to Bill, a pleading panic in his eyes that Bill had rarely seen in either of his independent and intelligent younger brothers.

"_Thought _of her like that." Fred finished this statement delicately, the flush on his face reddening again.

"Ah. I see. So we weren't wrong in assuming that you _wanted_ to sleep with Hermione were we?" Bill said arching his brow suggestively at them.

They goggled at him for a moment stunned. Bill rather enjoyed how much his brothers forgot that he was more astute than their other siblings, much as they seemed to notice everything around them, nobody was better at reading the twins than he was- except perhaps Remus and he had heightened senses to aid him on that note.

"Look Bill. . . we're really confused about the situation here. For Merlin's sake she was dating _Ron_! Honestly not something we'd be proud of, but" George snapped stiffly.

"Yes, we absolutely wanted to ravish that woman silly last night when she looked at us. Her eyes. . . they were mouthwatering and so fucking dark. She was so kissable.. so fuck-able- last night that it threw us off." Fred's dazed glance at George, then back at Bill made it hard for Bill to clamp down on the desire to snigger. Honestly Fred couldn't be less like himself than if he'd switched personalities with George.

"Bill it took all we had to let go of her then and go upstairs to take a bloody long and fucking _freezing cold _shower. No girl has ever affected us like that. And we've honestly done quite a number of things with a fair few of them."

"Yes, but you two are still virgins. No matter how many girls you fool around with or how many times you get hot and heavy, until you see desire and lust in a woman's eyes that responds or resonates with your own lust and desires... it won't be half as gratifying. You won't feel half as much satisfaction in the purely physical things you do to each other."

"Bill when did _you_ become so knowledgeable about these things mate?" complimented Fred in manly awe at his older brother's sage words.

"That's honestly not the issue here though boys. What I'm most curious about to be honest, is your perfectly _gallant_ treatment of her last night." Bill looked from one to the other expectantly. "You know I didn't even take Fleur to that restaurant until the night I proposed to her. So we're all obviously quite _suspicious_ of you two for that really."

The twins just grinned up at their older brother happily. Bill rolled his eyes and waited for one of them to crack. Finally George spoke up while examining his nails in faux fascination.

"We didn't think about it like that. Honestly we just wanted to make her smile and get her thoughts off of Ron last night. We weren't trying to seduce her or anything."

Bill laughed at Georges words and shook his head. Really he knew they weren't thick, but they had their moments.

"Yeah, and what else did you two do for her out of the ordinary?" he asked them grinning maliciously.

The look of confused consternation on their faces nearly set Bill off again until Fred captured his attention with his next words.

"What the Fuck Forge."

"Gred? What do you mean?" George asked concerned, looking as though he thought Fred had went around the loop.

"How many girls have we taken to Lee's place to drink with us?"

"None. Why?" George looked more confused than concerned now. Bill was shaking silently as Fred slowly revealed the revelation he'd cottoned on to.

"How many girls have we gotten smashed out drunk with, and _still_ had a good time? Without babysitting I mean."

"None." George's irritation was starting to show through now, and Bill was stuffing his fist into his mouth in an effort to keep from throwing his head back and howling out his laughter at George's face.

"And how many times have we gone above and beyond to make a witch comfortable or happy?"

"Huh? We were just being nice this morning Fred. No need to talk like it's-"

"No George. Think. What did you do this morning for Hermione in the bathroom?"

"I transfigured the towels to make them more appealing to her, and I enlarged the tub, and I charmed the lights to dim, and I left all the different WonderWitch products. . ." George's voice trailed away as dawning comprehension made him slack jawed.

Fred nodded mutely at George adding, "And I left those flowers on the pillows for her remember?"

Horror now registered fully on both twins' faces in a sudden epiphany. Bill was now rolling around on the ground, beating the ground and gasping for air while his brothers ignored him for their newfound horror of realization.

"Holy shit Fred, what are we gonna do?" George asked quietly, seeking his elder and more dominant twins' assurances.

Fred shrugged helplessly, thinking over the new information and trying to digest it. A new horror occurred to him while watching a red faced and gasping Bill rolling about the ground laughing at them.

"George! Are we in love with her?"

Bill looked up suddenly at his younger twin brothers in shock. He hadn't drawn up _that_ possibility, and he now wondered at why it was so funny to him that his brothers were unintentionally courting Hermione Granger. A shiver went down his spine, thinking of all the things in his life with Fleur and hoping fervently that Fred and George didn't notice his sudden tension. It was time to pay Remus a visit.

* * *

Hermione woke up stretching leisurely and smiling. She knew that it was over with Ron, but somehow after a good nights' sleep it seemed as though it had been a few days ago, in the distant past. She couldn't be too sure how she'd react when she saw Fred and George. After all, when she had seen them yesterday all of a sudden, she had thought it was Ron who was bending over her with concern in his eyes. A small pain in her heart made itself known at this sentiment and her smile turned to a grimace.

Granted, it may feel like distant past now, but that didn't mean she was _over_ Ron. He'd been a complete and fixed presence in her life since the beginning of Hogwarts after their rock beginning. She had thought that they were a sure thing, a fixed point in her future that was reliable. Or had been anyways, until he'd sprung this damn thing on her and made her feel as though years of friendship, and an unspoken promise had been betrayed. Her trust, her love, her friendship were all in deep shit with him now. She didn't know how she'd move on, but Hermione was determined to move on as soon as humanly possible.

She opened her eyes with this thought, expecting Fred or George to be still asleep beside her on the bed and was startled to see a slight indent in the bed where a George sized body had lain all night long and the covers rumpled. On his pillow lay a card and a beautiful pink gardenia, its frothy petals exuding a sweet and subtle scent that she realized had enveloped her earlier on in her sleep. The tips of the petals lightly brushed the stiff card, and she noticed that the card bore a highly elaborate word on the front of it. Picking it up she realized it was her name, written in ink across the front.

Hermione smiled with happy surprise and opened up the card. She read it through twice and even laughed quietly at the snide little jokes that they couldn't help but write. She looked up at the desk and smiled even wider. There was one of their patented hangover potions just for witches. She'd had some before, but not often.

Hermione's favorite was the sweet strawberry flavored one, but she honestly didn't need the potions as often as she'd originally thought. She even surprised herself at how much liquor she could hold before getting smashed out drunk. She had really been only tipsy, borderline drunk when they got home last night. She blushed sheepishly at the line of thought that had brought her to tears before Fred and George hugged her, caressed her and made her feel so.. _good_. She blushed again, this time at memory of both of their hard cock's pressing up against her through their clothes.

Suddenly deciding that a hot shower was just what she needed to keep her mind off of such ridiculous things (and get washed up.. she didn't know how anybody hadn't cringed at her appearance yesterday without her taming her bushy hair) Hermione threw the covers off of her, scooted across the bed, and turned around to examine the bedroom.

She suddenly realized that George's bed had been pushed up against the wall and Fred's had been enlarged to accommodate the three of them and… there was another note and gardenia on the other pillow. Smiling at the twins' thoughtfulness she made her way around the magically enlarged bed to the bathroom, already longing to feel the hot water running down her body, caressing her skin and soothing away all the aches of yesterday. She grimaced… maybe not _all_ the aches of yesterday, but certainly the bodily ones.

Hastily snatching up her purse on the way there, she started frantically searching for the Muggle shampoo and conditioner she had packed a few years ago while searching for Horcruxes with Ron and Harry. Her eyes began to tear up at the thought of those days so long ago, but she shook her head and swiped at her eyes angrily. She was _not_ going to _cry_ all damn day!

Her hand brushed up against her wand inside the magically enlarged bag and she immediately took it out. It felt perfectly at home inside her hand, and always made her feel more at ease. Instead of summoning her strawberry scented Muggle products and being lazy, she thrust her arm inside still allowing it to present to her all of the items contained.

"Not the empty bottle of _dittany_. I'll have to replace that soon… never know when I'll need the damn thing what with living with Fred and George now… That'll be my potions kit… the damn broom seat Harry gave me last Christmas… Parchment… quills… all of my ink… where are those blasted toiletries for Merlin's sake?" Hermione muttered, keeping up a constant monologue of her doings as she opened the bathroom door. Looking up absently from the bag and her arm shoved inside, Hermione stopped dead her jaw slack in wonder.

The bathroom was marvelous. It was soft, and warm, and the bathtub just begged her to soak inside it for eternity. On the counter beside the sink was a plethora of WonderWitch products the twins had developed. There was a breath-freshening potion; there were frizz-remover and hair straightening potions; there was a delectable amount of bubble bath choices, and there was an astounding amount of various other products, all of which Hermione couldn't wait to try. And all around the bathroom on every surface, perched candles of every shape, size, and color in random, but relaxed, groupings.

She glanced around the inviting bathroom, knowing instinctively that the twins would _never_ keep their bathroom like this all the time. It just wasn't their style… although as she looked at the towels with her brow arched (they were so fluffy and inviting) she just had to wonder if maybe they _did _on occasion.

Hermione undressed quickly and selected a few of her favorite products, then chose a few of the other things she wanted to try... particularly the bubble bath that scrubbed your body clean automatically before disappearing. Then stepped across to the towel to run her fingers through the soft fur-like texture and shivered in unexpected pleasure. It was _so soft_ to the touch. It made her feel as though she were running her hands through extremely soft and long fur.

A bubble of happy laughter sounded from her throat. Honestly, the twins really weren't as bad as they used to be. And with that thought Hermione skipped over to the Jacuzzi-like tub to fill the bubble-bath tray and run the water. As the water level rose steadily, Hermione practically danced over to the counter where her poor purse had been unceremoniously dumped and snatched her wand up from its side. She flicked her friendly wand once and all the candles danced with the beautiful blue-bell flames that was her specialty back in first year. She rushed over to the porcelain throne to relieve her bladder and surveyed her handy work.

She narrowed her eyes at the effect the dancing flames produced on the room and flicked her wand again, changing the colors of two-thirds of the candles to compliment and warm the beautiful blue color the flames naturally produced. Satisfied with her work, and done with emptying her bladder, she walked back to the bathtub and shivered in anticipation. All that was left for her to do was relax and enjoy the sweet scented bubble bath and be soothed by the deliciously hot water.

She lowered herself gingerly into the large tub full of scalding water and sighed in content when she leaned back against what was supposed to be the tub, but was in fact cushioned air. She placed her wand in a little niche beside the tub in easy reach, and closed her eyes to enjoy the soothing nature of the water.

Soon however, a curious tingling sensation spread across her body from her breasts outward, covering everywhere except her face and hair. Opening her eyes and looking down at herself, she realized it was the self-cleaning bubble bath at work and she smiled again. She liked how pampered she felt as a new sensation of deep massage spread outward across her tense shoulders and lower back, smoothing out knots and gently cleaning her body in sensuously slow circles.

Hermione thought critically about her attitude yesterday and her reactions to simple conversation between friends and sighed. It was still hard for her to discuss those things with anybody except Harry and Ron… hearing it all last night had made her think with ire back on the time spent with Ron, while he _used_ her. She snorted angrily… She really needed to get over him if she was to have any sort of life in this amazingly magical joke shop run by his brothers.

She noted the sudden absence of the wonderfully relaxing and cleansing bubble bath and made a mental note to ask the twins how they had managed that. While Hermione was considering how long she would take in the bath before she finally got out and headed over to the Burrow.

Feeling a low rumbling growl rip through her midsection protesting loudly of her hunger, she opened her eyes to consider her wand and whether Mrs. Weasley would notice that she wasn't eating much at lunch if she had a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before leaving. However, when she opened her eyes, she was surprised to find that all the candles had either burnt up or were well on their way to being that way.

Shocked at how much time she had already spent in the large and comfortable tub, Hermione quickly hauled herself up out of its embracing depths, pulling the stopper as she did. After flicking most all of the moisture off of her body with her own hands, Hermione snatched the towel from its resting place, and hastily dried off. Dimly aware that she would have normally taken time to dry off with the luxurious towel if not for the fact that it was well past the time the Weasley's normally had lunch, Hermione snatched up her wand and did some hasty wand work, cleaning up the water that had pooled at her feet from her hair, dousing the candles, and summoning a set of comfortable but fitted robes to change into.

She dashed across to the counter, and grabbed the first hair potion that caught her eye: Sleakeazy's Magical Hair Potion. The same one she had used during the Yule Ball, and a few times since then, to straighten out her wildly bushy hair. Registering the fact that it may seem to everybody else as though she were trying too hard to make herself look nice after Ron in a petty sort of rebound effort, Hermione decided to use it anyways. She wasn't about to tell anybody that she'd merely relaxed so easily in the wonderful tub that she had nearly missed lunch and had rushed to get ready.

Deciding thus, Hermione dumped the bottle out on the top of her head, then gathered up her hair, working the potion through it until it was saturated down to the roots with the liberal amount of potion she'd poured on it. She then picked her wand back up, and bent forward so her hair was hanging down in front of her face, and performed the complicated little dance of her wand she'd used so many times throughout her Hogwarts career, to emit hot air in a steady stream from her wand. She directed this at her hair in layers with practiced ease, flicking it back into its normal position as she continued and letting the potion work its magic within her hair.

Finally Hermione's hair was blissfully straight, and completely dry. She quickly divested herself of her towel and climbed into her pretty fitted robes. Deciding it wasn't worth it to take the time to put her exceedingly long hair up, Hermione simply grabbed her purse, and Apparated to the Burrow.

She arrived in a swirl of silky lavender robes and she rolled her eyes in exasperation. She hadn't realized she'd put on these special robes that she had picked out for a few of the formal functions she'd been summoned to since the Final Battle of Hogwarts.

'Oh yeah. They were definitely going to think she'd dressed up to the nines today for rebound effect. Shit.' Hermione thought sullenly. Figuring that she shouldn't make them wait on her any longer, she strode purposely forward into the protective wards of the Burrow heading towards where she knew the majority of people would be congregated: the Kitchen.

* * *

Fred and George had noticed Bill go unnaturally quiet and rise to his feet as Bill thought of speaking with Remus. They were concerned about him until they all felt the tug on their magical core alerting them that somebody magical had entered the wards set up for the Burrow. Instead of investigating further into what had caused the abrupt change in attitude with Bill the twins set off towards the house at a trot.

They were all still wary because it was highly likely that an escaped Death Eater would come after the Weasley clan, as they were known friends with Harry Potter, and had had a major role in the defeat of their master Voldemort, but mostly the twins were hoping it was Ron and that they would beat Ginny, Charlie and Harry to him to get the first swing in.

Yet, when they rounded the corner they did not expect to see a beautiful witch with melted chocolate eyes and thick, lusciously long hair wearing lavender robes that hugged her body in the most delicious ways as she walked quickly and purposefully to the house, nor that she would stop suddenly as though hitting a brick wall and stare at their drawn wands in shock with her hands slowly raised to shoulder height.

Bill, Fred, and George all stared at this beautiful creature, torn between fascination with her gorgeous body, and wariness at who the hell she could be. A strong breeze rippled her robes around her body, lifting her robes slightly around her ankles, tossing her hair about playfully and causing a shiver to run the length of her body, hardening her nipples through the filmy material.

The breeze carried her scent to Bill, and he lowered his wand marginally as he processed the scent coming off of her. She was ovulating… she had used a hair potion… taken a bubble bath recently… and there was something else more familiar about her that sent his wolfish instincts into overdrive with desire. He lowered his wand to his side and took a step closer to her, opened his mouth-

Then a high pitched girlish squeal sounded behind him, which could only signal that his sister had arrived on the scene. She flew past him and threw her arms around the witch before them happily. The look on Fred and George's face was hilarious, and Bill- though highly disappointed- had to grin at his brothers looking as shocked and confused as he would've been if he hadn't known who it was already.

"Hermione! Thank god you're finally here! I have so much to talk with you about! Come on let's go inside." Ginny gushed to her best friend, still standing there with her arms wrapped around the older witch.

"That isn't Hermione!" blurted George suddenly, looking outraged at Ginny for saying something so ludicrous and angrily at Hermione as though it were all her fault that Ginny was harboring delusions of her being the woman he was now fantasizing about.

The woman in question tossed her head, whipping her hair back behind her and eyes snapping angrily at them. Hermione's voice issued from the gorgeous creature before them, in the exact way that they knew Hermione would, but it just didn't click that this was the same Hermione who had fallen apart before them yesterday and had requested their comfort throughout the night with their bodies pressed up close to hers.

"If you two don't think I'm bloody me than I have no intentions of proving to you that you're wrong! And you can forget about the Undetectable Extension Charm I was going to show you today because I don't think you'll _really_ want to learn it from _me_ if I'm obviously not welcome here by _you_!"

Harry and Bill threw their heads back and roared out their laughter, amused at the twins' identical expressions of shock and sudden realization painted on their faces. Ginny was obviously fighting to keep from even smiling as she soothed Hermione and assured her that they very much wanted her to be there. Hermione for her part looked haughtily away from the twins and stomped off towards the Burrow with Ginny keeping up with her easily.

'They have a lot of making up to do to her now.' Bill thought wryly as he made to follow Hermione, Ginny, and a still laughing madly Harry through the door into the Burrow's warmth and comfort. Bill glanced at his brother Charlie wanting to talk with him about what had just conspired, but noticed his brow was furrowed in thought. Taking a deep sniff covertly, Bill realized that Charlie was just as turned on by Hermione as he was, and fighting with himself over the morality of the situation. He sighed audibly, causing Charlie to glance up at him sheepishly from the corner of his eyes. 'Especially since now it seems like even Charlie and I have been sucked into the charms of this gorgeous woman. This is certainly going to be interesting.'


End file.
